In crawler tracks known from WO 81/01395 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,412 A, U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,459 B1, DE 4193446 A, EP 0 721 879 A, U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,219 A, the guide wheel is pivoted about the pivot bearing of the tensioning lever at the crawler carrier when tensioning the track or CATERPILLAR chain. The tensioning lever has to transmit the tensioning force and at the same time to laterally support the guide wheel. As the pivot axis of the tensioning lever at the track carrier has a distance from the axis of the guide wheel, a stable lateral support of the guide wheel can hardly be achieved. Due to the arc-shaped path of the axis of the guide wheel during movements against the spring action of the tension cylinder or during a tensioning cycle, the interior geometry of the crawler track is frequently varied. The guide wheel imparts lateral forces on the tensioning lever and on the suspension of the tensioning lever. The tensioning cylinder also might cause lateral force components. This causes an unstable traveling property and the danger of losing the track or the CATERPILLAR chain and generates strong wear to the respective suspensions.
In the crawler track disclosed in WO-A-95/11816 the axis of the guide wheel is supported in a slide part. The slide part is linearly guided in a shaft fixed to a transmission casing of the crawler track. A tensioning cylinder arranged between the slide part and the transmission casing actuates the slide part in tensioning direction.